What steps to take when changing a site's domain name? [closed]

Question

I have site that had one domain name and is now changing to another. I purchased the new one from Godaddy and set the nameservers to the web host with my site. It's been a few days now with no result. Am I missing something? Does the web host need to be alerted or am I fine with just updating the nameservers for the domain?

Answer 1

So, You purchased an additional domain from Godaddy and you want to host it elsewhere?

First step is to change nameserver. The nameserver has to point at whoever is hosting your DNS records. I advise you use Everydns as they are very good.

Next, on the DNS server, you (typically) need to point an A record with the value of mydomain.com to their IP address or a C name with their alias. They should give you these details.

Next, if updating the nameserver, you need to wait upto 48 hours for the changes to synchronise across the internet. If just changing DNS records, you need to wait between 30 minutes and an hour (sometimes longer) for caches to expire. You can flush your dns to speed things up, but sometimes they are cached at your ISP or elsewhere outside of your control.

I can't really give any more help as I do not know the host or any specific details, however if you contact their support, they should be able to help you - after all, you are paying them!

Answer 2

Apart from Wil's instructions: not every web server will automatically accept just any domain name that points to the server's IP address. Even more: when using virtual hosting, the server will most likely display the site that is also shown when typing in the server's bare IP address. So apart from your DNS issues, you need to be sure that your server is set up for the new domain name as well.

For example:

host www.youtube.com

www.youtube.com is an alias for youtube-ui.l.google.com.
youtube-ui.l.google.com has address 74.125.77.139
youtube-ui.l.google.com has address 74.125.77.100
[..]

And see the effect at http://www.youtube.com versus http://74.125.77.139

Answer 3

Pointing a domain to a site is a two part process. It sounds like you have already done part one, which is telling Godaddy to use your web host's DNS servers.

At this point, your web host needs to know that you are using a new domain. If the web host doesn't know about the new domain name, the server won't know how to respond to requests to the new domain. You can most likely setup this domain in your web hosts's control panel.

Also since you are moving your site to a new domain, you want to make sure you tell the search engines about this change. This can be done via 301 Permanent Redirect of the old domain.

Edit: At this point, there's no need to worry about using a 3rd party hosted DNS. While 3rd party DNS makes domain management easier, it wouldn't solve your problem now based on my understanding of how you described it.

Answer 4

Go with a proven solution: EasyDNS.link text